DA clears Anaheim police for shooting after high-speed chase

The Orange County District Attorney’s Office has cleared two Anaheim detectives who shot and injured a 24-year-old driver following a high-speed pursuit into Irvine, leaving the man paralyzed.

Detectives Paul Delgado and Peter Picone are not criminally culpable for the shooting of Kenneth John Yamashita-Magarro, and there is “substantial evidence that their actions were reasonable and justified under the circumstances,” a prosecutor wrote in a letter released Wednesday about the DA Office’s investigation.

In the days following the March 27, 2018 incident, few details of the shooting were released. It is standard procedure for the District Attorney’s Office to investigate police shootings.

According to the letter, Anaheim officers were conducting surveillance of a Westminster home trying to find a man wanted on a warrant and suspected probation violations. They saw someone, later identified as Yamashita-Magarro, getting into a Nissan Altima and driving away.

Unable to see whether the driver was the person they wanted, the detectives followed the Altima and called in a police helicopter for support at about 10 p.m.

Yamashita-Magarro sped up and made quick U-turns and stops that the detectives believed were consisted with the past driving behavior of the other man.

A pursuit reached speeds of up to 100 mph on surface streets, then in excess of 120 mph on the 405 Freeway, according to the letter. Yamashita-Magarro lost control of his car, striking a center divider.

It is unclear if the suspect knew he was being followed by police officers.

Witnesses told officers that the Altima’s driver had left on foot, with one person spotting him limping near a 24-Hour Fitness on Von Karman Avenue in Irvine.

Looking over a freeway wall, Picone saw Yamashita-Magarro, shine a flashlight on him, identified himself as a police officer and told Yamashita-Magarro to stop, the District Attorney’s Office says.

Another officer ordered Yamashita-Magarro to stop as well, but he kept walking while “jerking his arm as if he was going to pull something out of his waistband,” according to the letter.

Delgado and Picone made their way to the surface street where the suspect was, along with other officers, as Yamashita-Magarro continued to ignore commands while walking and “digging in his waistband,” the letter says.

Delgado told DA investigators that Yamashita-Magarro turned toward him in “a quick, furtive, full upper-body movement,” leading the detective to believe that Yamashita-Magarro was going to pull a gun, according to the DA letter.

Delgado fired a single round, he told the DA investigators, and then realized his handgun was empty because the magazine had fallen out in his vehicle.

Another officer fired a Taser from 25 feet away from Yamashita-Magarro but missed.

Picone told investigators that Yamashita-Magarro made a “furtive movement” toward him and pulled his right hand out of his waistband. Picone responded by firing eight rounds at Yamashita-Magarro, who fell to the ground.

“Detectives Delgado and Picone did what they believed necessary to stop a threat to themselves, their fellow officers and the public,” Senior Deputy District Attorney Erin Rowe wrote. “As such, the officers’ conduct was reasonable based on the totality of the circumstances.”

No weapon was located near Yamashita-Magarro. Authorities instead found a credit car and $1,130 hidden in his underwear, according to the DA letter. It wasn’t until after the shooting that detectives learned that Yamashita-Magarro wasn’t the person they had been looking for.

Yamashita-Magarro, paralyzed from the waist down, declined to talk to DA investigators about the shooting. He pleaded guilty to several charges, including hit-an-run and reckless driving and was sentenced last month to a year in jail and five years of probation.

Earlier this year, an attorney representing Yamashita-Magarro filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Anaheim and the detectives involved in the shooting, saying Yamashita-Magarro was unarmed and did not resemble the man the officers were searching for.

The pending lawsuit also alleges the force used against Yamashita-Magarro was excessive and unnecessary, and denies that he posed a threat.

After leaving the car crash, the suit says, Yamashita-Magarro stepped in a fountain, causing his clothes to get wet, which is why during the confrontation he reached down, to hold his sweats up.

“We disagree with the report issued by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, and we look forward to proceeding with the case,” said Joseph McGinley, Yamashita-Magarro’s attorney.